The Australian city eliminated manual data entry, automated compliance tracking, and saved over 400 staff hours a month by consolidating training within their ServiceNow environment.
“Before PlatCore, training was fragmented across multiple systems and spreadsheets. Now, everything lives inside ServiceNow—automated, connected, and effortless to manage.”
~ Marie Jackson, Learning & Development Lead, Townsville City Council
Overview
Townsville City Council, the largest urban center north of Australia’s Sunshine Coast, serves as a major government, business, and community hub. With a workforce of more than 1,600 employees spanning veterinarians, engineers, gardeners, accountants, and lawyers, learning and compliance play a vital role in keeping operations safe, efficient, and compliant.
Operating in a highly regulated environment, the Council must ensure every employee completes annually mandated training while managing dozens of specialized certifications and licenses. The challenge? Coordinating learning across such a diverse workforce—without a unified system—was time-consuming, manual, and costly.
The Challenge: Fragmented Systems, Manual Processes, and Compliance Risk
Before implementing PlatCore, Townsville City Council managed learning across multiple disconnected systems.
Training records were stored in an HR database that lacked training functionality, online learning was hosted on a standalone platform, and attendance or assessment records were maintained manually in spreadsheets.
“The management of training was a very administrative and labor-intensive process with little to no automation,” said Marie Jackson, Learning & Development Lead at Townsville City Council.
The consequences of fragmentation were significant:
- Manual data entry and duplicate work
L&D administrators were manually entering data between systems—more than 1,000 entries per month—just to maintain accurate records. - Inefficient reporting
Compliance reports were exported into Excel, formatted, and distributed manually, leaving no real-time visibility for managers or staff.
- No centralized Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
Without a system to manage role-based training requirements, scheduling was reactive rather than proactive. - Limited access and visibility
Employees couldn’t view their own training history, and managers had no insight into their teams’ training progress or upcoming expirations. - Compliance risk and data integrity issues
“With no automated notifications, there was a potential of staff being unable to work due to expired certifications,” Jackson noted. “That can cost any business money, time, and potentially reputational damage.”
- High costs and inefficiency
Townsville’s prior online content platform charged per-use fees. When that contract expired, compliance courses had to be delivered face-to-face.
“The mandatory annual Code of Conduct training took us a total of 600 staff-hours to deliver to 1,600 staff,” said Jackson. “It was effective for compliance, but a huge drain on resources—the whole business wanted a change.”
It was clear that Townsville needed a modern, integrated learning solution that could automate administrative work, ensure compliance visibility, and deliver an easy experience for users.
The Solution: A Native LMS on ServiceNow
Already a ServiceNow customer, Townsville saw an opportunity to bring learning onto the same platform that powered its HR and IT workflows. PlatCore LMS—built natively on ServiceNow—offered the perfect fit.
Implementation was remarkably simple.
“It really is as simple as installing an app on your phone if your business is ready and already using ServiceNow,” said Jackson.
Because PlatCore runs within ServiceNow, there was no need for new infrastructure, integrations, or technical training. A small internal team led the project, supported by PlatCore’s implementation experts. The Council quickly configured the system, migrated content, and set up automated workflows—all without a large project budget.
Key Factors in a Successful Rollout
- Seamless implementation: No additional IT resources or training required.
- Rapid time-to-value: Existing training content went live almost immediately.
- Strong change management: Clear communication and stakeholder engagement built excitement and buy-in.
- User-friendly design: “It needed to be easy for our end users,” Jackson said. “One-click access, single sign-on, and a personal dashboard that showed exactly what each employee needed to complete.”
Within the first month of go-live, 85% of Townsville’s workforce—over 1,300 employees—completed their first course without requiring system training.
Innovating Role-Based Learning with “Training Roles”
During implementation, the Townsville team worked with PlatCore to enhance the system’s flexibility through a new feature—Training Roles.
The concept was born from Townsville’s desire to simplify how training was assigned. Instead of assigning courses manually to each of the 1,600 staff members, the Council could create reusable role profiles linked to positions such as “Administrator,” “Engineer,” or “First Aid Responder.”
“If you give staff access to a full catalog, they’ll often choose what they want to do rather than what they need to do,” Jackson explained. “By linking training to roles, we ensured every employee received exactly the training required for their job—automatically.”
Training Roles also allowed Townsville to:
- Instantly assign corporate-wide courses (like Code of Conduct) to all employees.
- Manage compliance renewals with color-coded dashboards (green, orange, red) showing completion and expiration status.
- Enable automated reassignments when employees changed roles or departments.
This innovation became so impactful that PlatCore incorporated it into the product for all customers.
Results: Streamlined Learning, Automation, and Measurable Impact
After consolidating learning on ServiceNow, Townsville saw rapid and measurable improvements across the organization.
-
Automation & Efficiency Gains
PlatCore eliminated repetitive administration work, automating enrollment, tracking, and reporting.
-
- Manual data entry reduced from over 1,000 entries/month to zero
-
- Enrollment time decreased by 70%
-
- 447 staff-hours saved each month, half directly attributed to PlatCore automation
“The learning and development team is now freed from manual data entry and can focus on improving training outcomes rather than maintaining spreadsheets,” Jackson said.
- Faster, More Flexible Compliance Training
Replacing face-to-face delivery with online learning transformed compliance completion rates.
“Our annual Code of Conduct training used to take 600 hours of in-person delivery,” said Jackson. “With PlatCore, 85% of staff completed it online in just 20 days—saving time, resources, and frustration.”
- Real-Time Visibility & Proactive Compliance
Automated dashboards now give staff and managers live insight into training status. Color-coded indicators flag expiring certifications, helping departments proactively plan renewals before compliance lapses occur.
- Better Employee Experience
With single sign-on and personalized dashboards, learners can access everything they need directly within ServiceNow. The user-friendly interface required no end-user training, even for field workers with limited digital experience.
“It’s so intuitive that end users didn’t need to be trained in the system,” Jackson said. “In the first month, 1,360 staff completed a course—that’s 85% of our workforce.”
Validated Business Outcomes
Townsville City Council’s measurable improvements since implementing PlatCore include:
| Metric | Result |
| Manual data entry | Reduced from 1,000+ entries per month to zero |
| Compliance delivery time | Cut from 600 staff-hours to 20 days of self-paced completion |
| Staff time savings | 447 hours saved monthly; 50% directly from PlatCore automation |
Conclusion
By consolidating its learning management function into the ServiceNow platform, Townsville City Council eliminated fragmentation, automated compliance workflows, and delivered a seamless learning experience for every employee.
PlatCore’s native integration not only simplified administration and reporting but also empowered Townsville to scale learning, improve compliance, and reinvest time back into employee development.
Ready to see how a native LMS built on ServiceNow can transform your business? Contact us today to schedule a demo.
